


I Dare You

by Tea_For_One_Please



Category: Andi Mack (TV)
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Alcohol, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Coming Out, Confessions, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Kissing, M/M, Sleepovers, Truth or Dare, Underage Drinking, they're like 16-17, you can see where this is going
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-06
Updated: 2019-03-07
Packaged: 2019-11-12 19:05:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,945
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18016643
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tea_For_One_Please/pseuds/Tea_For_One_Please
Summary: A game of truth or dare rocks TJ's world.





	1. Truth or Dare?

**Author's Note:**

> Not exactly original but it's something? Anyway I wanted to write something but can't work on my WIPs because I don't have any of my notes :(
> 
> Still, enjoy!

"Okay, Cyrus, you're up. Truth or dare?"

TJ smiled as Cyrus started at the mention of his name, breaking out of the light doze he had slipped into. They were squashed in together on a large armchair, and he could tell his best friend was exhausted. It was, after all, nearly 2am - at least three hours after Cyrus was usually asleep. On the perpendicular sofa, Marty and Buffy were curled up together, with Andi and Jonah alongside, fussing Marty's Tibetan terrier, which was sprawled across their laps. They had never had a sleepover at Marty's house, and they were already collectively agreed it was the best location.

"Truth, I guess." Cyrus' voice was sleepy, and TJ guessed he simply couldn't be bothered to get out of his sleeping bag to do a dare. He had also observed that a beer and a half was half a beer more than Cyrus usually had, and he supposed this too had not helped.

"First crush," Marty chipped in. TJ saw Cyrus blink and flush, and noticed Andi and Buffy exchange a glance.

"Pass."

"I'll go," TJ said hastily, hoping to save him some embarrassment.

"No, in that case Cyrus has to drink," Jonah chimed in from across the room, scratching the dog's ears and not looking up. Cyrus let out a feeble noise of complaint, but Marty shook his head firmly.

"You know the rules."

"I'm actually kind of ready to go to sleep," Cyrus tried. Marty said nothing, but passed him the bottle, half full of the blue liquid. "Fine." With a defeated sigh, Cyrus relented. "Jonah."

"Yeah?" he said, still distracted by the dog. TJ looked from Cyrus to Jonah, and back again. Cyrus had buried his face in the folds of his sleeping bag. Jonah finally looked up, apparently noticing that the silence was thick enough to cut with a hatchet. "What?"

"You were my first crush," came Cyrus' muffled voice from inside his sleeping bag.

"Really?" Jonah smiled. "That's nice, Cy-Guy. I'm flattered."

"I'm glad," said Cyrus. "Because I was planning to take that to the grave, and now I want to die." A few nervous chuckles were stifled. Marty looked embarrassed.

"Sorry, Cyrus, we shouldn't have made you say that."

"No, it's okay," he sighed, finally emerging from his navy cocoon. "It's not like I still have a crush on him, so it's less embarrassing. Sorry, JB."

"Nah, it's chill," Jonah shrugged. "I don't mind." He feigned stifling a sob, which made everyone laugh, including Cyrus. TJ joined in, relieved that his friend was okay.

"Your turn, Marty," Andi said, but TJ barely heard. Outwardly, he maintained his cool, giving Cyrus a nudge and a reassuring grin. Inside, however, his heart was pounding uncontrollably.

_Cyrus was gay._

Or at least, he liked boys. That didn't necessarily mean he was gay, but that particular technicality didn't matter. What mattered was that there was a chance. A chance that he might like him back. TJ had always wondered, as in the time he'd known Cyrus he had never seemed to show any interest in girls, but this confirmation was groundbreaking.

This did, however, mean that TJ should probably stop moping and work up the courage to ask him out. Practically speaking, this was a lot more difficult than simply wallowing in the assumption that his affection was entirely unrequited.

"Wait, we skipped TJ!" said Buffy, looking innocently at him. Damn.

"Truth," he said immediately.

"What do we think?" Buffy addressed the room in general.

"Biggest fear," said Andi after a moment's thought.

"Clowns."

"That's not true," Cyrus said, poking him in the side, making him squeak. "You made me watch It with you, against my better judgement, and you loved it."

"You watched that?" said Andi enviously. "My parents flat-out refused."

"Shot time," Marty said cheerfully, passing him the bottle. TJ poured one out and took it in one, grimacing as he went.

"So what's the truth, Kippen?" asked Buffy.

"Fine," said TJ. "If Cyrus can be honest..." He thought for a moment. "Losing the people close to me." _An almost-truth._

"Whoa, this got deep fast," Marty said, his eyes widening.

"Go big or go home," shrugged Buffy. "We'll always love you, Kippen." She smiled at him before moving on.

After a few more rounds, Buffy poked her boyfriend and said, "Party boy. Truth or dare?"

"Dare," he said, smirking.

"I got one," said Cyrus, and Marty groaned. Sweet, gentle Cyrus consistently amazed the group with his frankly evil dares - even though right now he could barely hold his eyes open.

"Hit me," Marty said gloomily. Buffy punched his shoulder and he winced.

"Climb the neighbour's trellis and take a selfie in your underwear."

Marty paled. "It's thirty degrees outside."

"Well, if you don't do it, you take a shot," Jonah pointed out. "Which is better?"

"Good point," Marty sighed, wriggling out of his sleeping bag. "That stuff is pretty foul."

"Oh, we're definitely watching this," said Buffy, catching him up.

 

Jonah and Andi followed suit, and Cyrus started to go as well, but TJ caught his hand. Cyrus looked at him in surprise.

"Can I talk to you?"

"Sure." Cyrus snuggled back down again, but chewed his lip nervously. "What's up?" TJ noticed that his words were very slightly slurred. His own head was spinning, and it was to this fact that he would later attribute his forthcoming courage.

"I thought you were really brave earlier," he said slowly. Cyrus looked blankly at him. "When you said you'd had a crush on Jonah."

"Oh yeah," Cyrus said, his eyes lighting up in comprehension. "Thanks, Teej."

"I just wanted to say you're not alone," he went on. Cyrus' dark eyes, although wandering a little, were clearly fixed on him. God, he was cute.

"You liked Jonah too?"

"No," TJ chuckled. "I do like boys though."

"Cool!"

"Yeah," TJ said, smiling slightly. "I – " His sentence was cut off, however, by Cyrus leaning up and planting his lips on TJ's. It was clumsy, and ended so quickly TJ wondered if it had even happened at all, or if he'd simply imagined it. It wouldn't be the first time. "Oh." He offered Cyrus a shaky smile. Cyrus beamed back at him, before leaning his head on TJ's shoulder and closing his eyes.

"Night, TJ."

By the time the other four returned, TJ could hear Cyrus' soft snores vibrating into his arm. The others were so busy giggling at Marty's antics that they barely noticed, and TJ put a finger to his lips when they happened to glance in his direction. After that they started to settle down into their sleeping bags, and TJ rested his head against Cyrus' hair, soft from having washed out the product it usually bore. He breathed him in and closed his eyes to shut out the spinning room.


	2. Truth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> TJ wrestles with the idea of telling Cyrus what happened, with a little help.

The first thing TJ noticed when he woke up was that he was cold. The second was that his head hurt. The third - possibly causing the first - was that Cyrus was not there. He opened his eyes. It was still fairly dark outside, although the morning twilight had set in, giving the lounge a dull, grey look. He yawned, rubbed his eyes and suppressed a groan. Damn. So this what a hangover felt like. He'd drunk alcohol before - but the truth or dare had pushed him over the edge. He suspected it had pushed Cyrus beyond his limit too.

It was in this slow thought that TJ's befuddled mind gave a brief moment of clarity and he froze, forgetting how cold he felt. Cyrus had kissed him. Wait. Had he dreamt that? No, he knew what it was like to imagine kissing Cyrus, as he had been doing so on and off for the last three years. This was real. Hoping for a momentary distraction, he reached for his phone and pressed the home button. Nothing. Of course, he'd forgotten to plug it in before he went to sleep. As he wriggled out of his sleeping bag to retrieve his charger, TJ heard the toilet flush from somewhere upstairs.

He plugged in his phone, burrowed back down into his sleeping bag and waited for the phone to start up. It started buzzing straight away, with several dozen Instagram notifications, the group tagging him in stories, he supposed. A promotional email which he deleted immediately. Two news stories, a baseball score, and finally, two texts from Cyrus, sent only five minutes ago.

muffin boy: come find me when you're up?  
muffin boy: I'm on the balcony

Immediately he got up and headed for the door, sweeping a glance across the floor for his hoodie. Failing to find it, he shrugged and pulled his shell jacket from his backpack instead. Not the most comfortable since he was just wearing a short-sleeved t-shirt underneath, but never mind. Stepping over the bottle of the blue liquor they'd emptied last night, TJ crept up the stairs and saw Cyrus through the sliding doors, leaning on the railing, looking out across the street. He turned around and smiled weakly as TJ joined him.

"Hey, Cy. You're up early." He noticed the steaming purple mug he was clutching, his hands barely visible due to the oversized sweater he was wearing. So that's where my hoodie went. "Since when do you drink coffee?"

"Since when do I wake up with a hangover?" Cyrus said, his voice unusually rough and low. TJ chuckled.

"You had fun last night?" he said, testing the water. He had not remembered the kiss straight away. He wondered if Cyrus had.

"I think so," he said, taking a sip of the dark liquid and grimacing. "It's a little patchy."

"What do you remember?"

Cyrus paused, thinking. "I think I told Jonah I used to like him?"

"Affirmative."

"Crap," he groaned. "I was so hoping I'd dreamt that." He sipped his coffee again. "Weird dream though. They remade Tarzan and Marty played him."

"No, you dared him to climb the neighbour's trellis in his underwear," TJ said, biting his lip to stop himself from laughing.

Cyrus stared at him. "Bull."

"Cross my heart," TJ said seriously.

"And he did it?"

"It's all over Instagram, you can check."

"What a moron," Cyrus sighed. The colour suddenly left his face. "I didn't do anything stupid, did I?"

In the approximate half-second that followed this, TJ considered his options. Clearly Cyrus did not remember kissing him. Therefore, he could tell him, humiliating Cyrus to the point of potentially ending their friendship, or let this particular sleeping dog lie and move on.

"Not that I remember," TJ said, with a dismissive shrug. _Coward,_ hissed the voice in the back of his head. _Yeah,_ he thought back. _What of it?_

"Oh, good." Cyrus' relief was visible.

"Can we go inside now? It's freezing, and you stole my only hoodie." Cyrus offered him a mischievous smile, but nodded and led the way back into the house.

TJ was preoccupied for the rest of the morning. Part of him wanted to tell Cyrus what had happened. Another part of him wanted to simply savour the - admittedly foggy - memory of Cyrus kissing him. Yet another wanted that memory to become a frequent reality. He wasn't sure what to do. The others asked him a few times if he was okay, as he was quiet and introspective, which wasn't like him, but he attributed it to the tiredness and the hangover, which they accepted - most of them being in a similar position.

TJ spent the next day in bed, mindlessly scrolling through his phone, texting Cyrus, ignoring the group chat and catching up on The Good Place, his mind constantly flipping between tell him, no don't, tell him, no don't, tell him, no don't... At around seven that evening, Cyrus said he was going for dinner, so TJ was surprised when his phone buzzed again almost immediately.

_**slayer:** yo kippen what's going on?_  
_**Me:** nm, you?_  
_**slayer:** no I mean what's going on with you and cyrus_

TJ's heart rate started to pick up speed.

_**Me:** ??_  
_**slayer:** you been acting weird since friday night. did something happen?_  
_**Me:** don't think so_

TJ tapped his phone against his other hand for a moment before sending another message.

_**Me:** did cyrus say something?_  
_**slayer:** yeah actually_

At this, TJ nearly had a heart attack. He waited a moment, but tapped out a reply when Buffy didn't elaborate.

_**Me:** sorry, am I getting it by telepathic mail?_  
_**slayer:** yikes chill out my dude_  
_**slayer:** he only said he's worried about you jeez_

While TJ was thinking of something to say a third message popped up.

_**slayer:** should he have said something else?_

TJ rolled his eyes, pulled up the phone app and started a video call. Buffy eyed him suspiciously.

"What's going on, dingus?" TJ scowled.

"Is that still what you've listed me as in your contacts?"

"Am I still 'slayer'?"

"...yes."

"Well then," said Buffy, raising an eyebrow.

"Touché."

"What did you want to talk about?" Buffy pushed her hair out of her face and stared at him.

"Cyrus kissed me," he said quietly. Her eyes widened.

"Seriously?"

TJ nodded. "When you guys went to watch Marty do his dare, I told him I thought he'd been super brave to tell Jonah that he used to have a crush on him."

"That's sweet," said Buffy, apparently surprised. "In hindsight we probably should have stopped Marty from making him say it."

"Then I told him I was gay too," TJ said. Buffy's eyebrows shot into her hair.

"For real?"

"For real. And he said, 'cool', and kissed me." TJ chewed the inside of his cheek nervously.

"And?" Buffy was listening intently, apparently desperate for details.

"That's it! He went to sleep, you guys came back in, and by the morning he'd forgotten."

"Well, I'm not surprised. He did have quite a lot of that blue stuff." She thought for a minute. "Did you tell him?"

"No," TJ admitted. "I nearly did, but I chickened out at the last second."

"You need to," she said gently. "He knows something's up between you guys, and you know how insecure he gets. He'll think he's done something wrong."

"I know," said TJ, "but it's not that simple."

"Why not?"

"I... like him." Silence followed this proclamation and TJ looked away from the screen.

"Really?"

"Yeah. Have for a long time actually."

"Okay," she said slowly. "You don't need to tell him that if you don't want to, but you still need to tell him about the kiss."

"Does..." TJ checked himself, but she guessed what he wanted to ask.

"Does he like you back, you mean?" His silence worked as a reply. "Even if I knew for sure, I wouldn't want you to hear it from me."

"I feel like there's a 'but' coming."

She sighed. "But he talks about you a lot. He ignores my messages when he's on the phone to you. And he once came to school with a colander on his head because you asked him to."

Guilt flashed across TJ's face. "Yeah, don't remind me."

"Peace," she said, holding up a hand. "That wasn't a snarl. I already knew Kira manipulated you, and given what you just told me, I understand why it happened." TJ nodded, grateful. "But TJ, the fact remains that even if Cyrus doesn't like you in that way, you are pretty much the most important person in his life. You have to tell him about the kiss. He won't hate you for telling him, I promise."

"You're sure?"

"Pretty sure, yeah. But the longer you leave it, the less likely it is that I'm right." TJ nodded again.

"Thanks, Driscoll. That helped a lot."

"See you tomorrow, yeah?" She waved and hung up. TJ locked his phone and tossed it on the bed beside him. A message from Cyrus buzzed in a few minutes later. TJ reached for his phone, then for the first time, hesitated. Buffy was right, as she so loved to be. He needed to tell him.

The next morning, he waited at Cyrus' locker. He smiled when he saw TJ there.

"Hey!"

"Hey, I need to talk to you." TJ decided to rip off the band-aid. "Saturday morning, you asked if you'd done anything stupid, and I said you hadn't."

"So... I did?"

"Well, you kissed me, but – " TJ had planned to say he didn't think it was stupid, but Cyrus, as expected, blushed crimson and took a step away from TJ.

"Oh, I'm so sorry." He paused a moment, flustered, and TJ tried again.

"But Cyrus – "

Cyrus cut him off again. "I can see why you were uncomfortable telling me that. Sorry. I'm... I'm gonna go."

"Cyrus, I didn't want to make you feel awkward, I swear."

"No, it's okay, I did that myself," Cyrus babbled, tripping on a loose floor tile. "I'm sorry I made it weird. Just leave me alone, it's clearly better that way." TJ made to grab him but he slipped into the throng of students heading to their classrooms, out of his reach.

"Cyrus!" A few students gave him funny looks, but his closest friend in the world simply kept pushing through the crowd and disappeared.


	3. Dare

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> TJ tries talking to Cyrus about what happened, but Cyrus doesn't take it quite as well as TJ would have hoped.

For the rest of the day, TJ didn't see Cyrus once. He looked for him, he texted, he called, to no avail. He waited by his locker for nearly a full hour after school, but he never appeared.

The following afternoon, TJ was at basketball practice when, to his surprise, Andi and Libby slipped in quietly and sat at the bleachers. _Odd,_ he thought. _What are they doing here?_ He didn't interrupt the practice, as they seemed to be content chatting among themselves. Exactly what they were discussing TJ couldn't tell - he had never quite gotten to grips with ASL as much as the others. At the end of the practice, however, he jogged over and waved.

"Hey guys, what's up?"

"Have you seen Cyrus?" Andi asked, signing as she spoke so that Libby could follow.

"Not since Monday," he said, frowning and shaking his head. "Why, haven't you?"

"He's not been in school since then," she said.

"What?" His eyes widened.

"He says he's sick and not to come over as it's contagious," Andi said, voice heavy with scepticism.

"That's a coincidence," said TJ, mimicking her tone. "Did Buffy tell you about..?" Andi nodded.

"I agree, it's odd. Have you at least spoken to him?" In response, TJ unlocked his phone and scrolled through the dozens of unanswered messages so that she and Libby could see. Both girls winced. "Yikes," said Andi.

"I'm going over," said TJ. "Do you want to come?" Andi signed this for Libby, who shook her head and signed to the effect that she was meeting Jonah.

 

Once TJ had changed, Andi gave Libby a hug, before waving goodbye and setting off with TJ. "Where's Buffy?" TJ asked as they walked. "I'd have thought she'd want to be in on this."

"Take a guess," Andi remarked drily.

"Ah," said TJ, catching on. "Mr the Party."

"Got it in one," she chuckled. "So what exactly happened Friday night?" TJ explained the situation, but he hadn't quite finished when they rounded a corner onto Cyrus' street. About halfway down, they could see two police cars parked outside the Goodman residence.

 

"Oh my god," gasped Andi, breaking into a jog. TJ followed suit and they were running up onto Cyrus' porch in less than a minute. Through the open door they could see all four of Cyrus' parents talking to two police officers, his mother in floods of tears. "What happened?" Andi blurted out before TJ could check her. The parents and the police officers looked towards the two of them in shock.

"Who are these children?" The older police officer asked.

"They're Cyrus' friends," said Norman, who appeared to be in shock.

"Do you know where Cyrus is?" Leslie asked desperately, stepping towards Andi and TJ, ushering them inside and sitting them down.

"He isn't here?" TJ couldn't quite believe what was happening.

"Cyrus didn't come home last night," said Norman, standing next to his ex-wife and looking gravely at them. "I was about to ask if he'd told you where he was, but clearly not."

"When did you last hear from Cyrus?" the younger police officer asked. Andi pulled out her phone to check her texts. TJ didn't bother.

"Just before eight o'clock this morning," she said. " _I'm really sick, so won't be in school today. It's super contagious so don't come over_." She showed the officer the thread.

"Did anything about this strike you as odd?" the older officer said.

"Not at the time," said Andi. "I had no real reason to believe he wasn't sick."

"At the time," the officer repeated. Andi bit her lip and looked away. "Did something happen?" she urged. Again Andi said nothing, so they turned to TJ.

"If you have information that might help us find him, we need to know," said the younger officer.

"May we talk to you alone?" TJ asked politely, his mind racing to figure out a way to explain the events without mentioning the alcohol. The officer nodded to Cyrus' parents, who obligingly trooped out of the kitchen.

 

The older officer closed the door behind them, then she sat down opposite Andi and TJ. "On Friday, we had a sleepover. It got a little bit silly, and Cyrus ended up kissing me." The younger officer raised an eyebrow before continuing his notes, but the older officer interrupted.

"How did that happen? Are the two of you involved?" Andi shot him a fearful look, and he knew exactly what she was thinking. The six of them would be in deep, deep trouble if it came out that they had been drinking.

"No," said TJ. "We were playing truth or dare." A cleverly-placed lie of omission. This was true, but was not the direct cause of the kiss. The two police officers exchanged a knowing look. "Anyway, I may as well say that I have a crush on Cyrus, so on Monday morning I tried to talk to him about... you know, the kiss. He got embarrassed and ran off. I didn't see him again after that."

"What time was this?" asked the younger officer.

"Well, it was just before homeroom, so eight-thirty or so?"

"Did you see Cyrus after that, miss?" the older officer asked, addressing Andi.

"I share most of his classes, and we had lunch together."

"How did he seem?"

"Quiet, I suppose, looking back," she said. "But he can be like that sometimes. We stayed up late Friday night, and..." She stopped herself. "I mean, I guess I just assumed he was tired."

"'And' what, miss?"

"Excuse me?"

"You said 'and'," said the police officer patiently. "What were you going to say?" There was an awful silence. "Miss?"

"Cyrus... had a hangover on Sunday." There it was.

"Interesting," said the younger police officer. "You realise once we've found Cyrus we're going to have to inform your parents that you attended a social event where there was underage drinking?" TJ's heart sank.

"Who else was drinking, apart from Cyrus?" Their heads hung low in miserable shame, they gave the police officers Buffy and Marty's names (Jonah hadn't drunk). The younger police officer wrote everything down, and having made sure they couldn't tell them anything else, they let Andi and TJ go. They shot an apologetic look to Cyrus' parents as they left.

"Okay," said Andi, as soon as they were out of sight. There was a gritty determination in her voice that TJ had never observed. "I'll call Buffy, you call Jonah. We're going to find Cyrus, and then we're going to get our asses grounded for so long we'll be collecting a pension by the time it's over."

 

Half an hour later, they met in the park, TJ and Andi laid out what had happened for Buffy, Marty, Jonah and Libby. Buffy and Marty were not exactly impressed at having been found out, but they were more worried about Cyrus, so they held their peace.

"Here's the plan," said Andi. "Scour social media and the local news sites. Anything that might help us work out where he's gone."

TJ turned to Marty. "You're good with computers, right?" Marty nodded. "Go use the library computers and try doing a reverse face match with a picture of Cyrus. See if he's made it into the background of any pictures." Marty nodded, and he and Buffy ran off.

"Jonah, look on Facebook. TJ, take Twitter. I'll look on Instagram." Andi signed to Libby to look through Snapchat. They sat in silence for a while until Libby tapped Jonah on the leg.

"Andi, Libby's found something," Jonah said, looking down at her phone. "Bingo!"

"What is it?" Andi asked.

"Cyrus must have accidentally turned on his Snap Map," Jonah continued excitedly. "It says he's at the St. Stephen's Bridge. I don't know how long ago this was but it's a start." He smiled, signed well done to Libby, and kissed her on the cheek.

"That's a weird place to be," said TJ. "That's right on the edge of Shadyside."

"Well, I guess that's where we're going," said Andi firmly. "I've texted Buffy already, they'll meet us there. Come on!"

 

It was almost dark when they arrived. Libby had kept refreshing her phone on the way over, but nothing had changed. Andi called out Cyrus' name, but there was no answer. Jonah suggested they split up to cover more ground. They agreed on this, and wandered off in three different directions. Acting on instinct, TJ went down the bank onto the dried-out riverbed and squinted under the bridge. The light was very poor, so he pulled out his phone and flicked on the torch. He flinched as he saw movement, but his eyes widened as he saw a familiar green raincoat. "Cyrus?" The figure looked up, eyes filled with terror.

"TJ?" The voice was barely more than a whisper, but TJ would have known it anywhere. Putting aside his misgivings, he shoved his phone back in his pocket, ran to Cyrus and pulled him towards him. He wrapped his arms around him tightly, breathing him in. Good god, it was lucky he was so smitten with this boy, because right now, Cyrus stank. Cyrus hugged him back, and TJ could feel the strength of his sobs vibrating through his chest.

"What happened, muffin?" TJ asked gently. He felt Cyrus shrug underneath him.

"I was just so scared," he said, his voice indistinct. "I thought you hated me. I didn't want to go home, and the longer I left it the more difficult, and – "

"It's okay," TJ soothed. "You're okay now."

"I'm sorry," Cyrus kept saying between breaths. "I'm so sorry, TJ." When he had calmed down a little, TJ stepped back and wiped Cyrus' eyes with his gloves.

"No," he said. "I'm sorry I made you think I hated you."

"You're not mad?" Cyrus sniffed.

"Of course I'm not mad! You're so special to me," TJ said, smiling down at him. "I was so scared today. I never want to lose you again."

"But I ruined us," Cyrus whispered, emotion welling up in his eyes again.

"You didn't ruin us, Cyrus," TJ said. "When you disappeared, I was about to ruin us anyway... by asking if you'd ever want to kiss me again." Cyrus' face, wracked with exhaustion and misery, was blank of any comprehension. "I like you so much. I've been waiting for you to kiss me since we were thirteen." This was apparently too much for Cyrus' fatigued mind to deal with, as he buried his face in TJ's jacket and started to cry again. "It's okay," TJ smiled. "I've got you." He frowned suddenly. "But I'm afraid I do have some bad news about what'll happen when we get you home."

 

TJ spent the next six weeks of his life lying on his bed, staring up at the peeling basketball posters on the slanted ceiling of his bedroom. As predicted, the group's parents had been livid, and besides going to school, none of them were allowed out unsupervised until spring break. Being grounded sucked: he couldn't leave the house, he didn't have his phone, and he couldn't have visitors. He knew Cyrus, Andi, Buffy and Marty were having just as much fun, and they shared their commiserations at lunch at school. Even Jonah and Libby, the only ones who weren't grounded, were missing their friends.

School, however, was much improved. Each morning, Cyrus waited for TJ by his locker, and hand in hand, TJ would walk Cyrus to his homeroom, where Cyrus would kiss him goodbye, and they would agree to catch up at lunch, or beforehand if they shared a class. It was an arrangement which, TJ felt, more than made up for the monotony of his home life.

A few months later, they were lying in the shade of a large oak tree, enjoying the quiet spring afternoon and the warm sunshine.

"TJ?" Cyrus murmured.

"Mm?"

"I never thanked you for coming after me that time."

"You didn't need to thank me, Cy." TJ squeezed his hand and they lapsed into silence again.

"Teej?"

"Yeah?"

"I love you," said Cyrus after a moment's thought. TJ turned to face him and broke into a smile.

"I love you too."

"Nice," said Cyrus, so softly and so matter-of-fact that TJ almost wanted to laugh.

"Hey, Cyrus?" Cyrus turned his head to look at him again, and TJ grinned. "I dare you to kiss me."

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you liked it! Please leave a comment or hit me up on Tumblr (@tea-for-one-please) to let me know your thoughts :)


End file.
